Christmas Eve in NC

We left Roswell this morning around 6:40 to head to Lake Wylie to spend Christmas Eve with Dad’s family. We got to Ben and Sharon’s house around 10:20. We were right behind Mark, Sarah and their family and Mom and Dad and Kerri arrived right behind us. We had a nice time visiting and catching up with Michelle and her family as well as Derek and Tanya.

We had a great lunch that everyone helped to make. There was so much good food! It was hard to not eat some of everything. Mitchell really liked the ham. I think he had at least 3 pieces.

The biggest hit was Grammy’s chocolate layer cake. We are always so amazed at how many layers she can stack up without the whole thing just tumbling over.

We had to hit the road soon after we all opened gifts. Mitchell was asleep within 5 minutes of leaving their house. We went to Mom and Dad’s house and relaxed for a little bit before opening more gifts.

Mitchell got some great presents from his grandparents, Aunt Kerri and cousins. He got lots of books, puzzles and clothes. Grandmother and Granddad gave him the movie Madagascar on DVD and a DVD about fire trucks.

We ate some yummy SC barbecue and snacked on some dips that Mom had made. After dinner, we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. I was unsure about how Mitchell would act during church since he hadn’t napped very well throughout the day. But he was great. He sat in between me and Dave and flipped through his books. He did get up and walked over and sat with Granddad for a little bit. We were worried though because Granddad was supposed to read scripture and we could see Mitchell having a meltdown if he couldn’t go up front with him or if Granddad made him sit in his seat while he went up front. But right before Granddad had to go up, Mitchell walked over to me and sat in my lap. He then rotated between Aunt Kerri and Grandmother as well. He did really good and I was so proud of him.

When we went up for Communion, he wanted me to carry him. I took some bread from the loaf and before I could even dip it in the grape juice, he snatched it from my hand and ate it! We gathered in a circle around the sanctuary and lit candles and sang “Silent Night”. Again, Mitchell did really good and behaved himself.

David, Phyllis and Shelley Rogers came over to Mom and Dad’s after church. We let Mitchell stay up because he was pretty wired. He ended up curling up next to Dave on the couch and falling asleep around 9pm. We weren’t very far behind him in going to bed ourselves!

Mitchell in his Christmas PJs at my parent's house on Christmas Eve. He's looking at a family picture from his 1st Christmas. He's telling everyone's name to his Aunt Kerri.